Scott Sunderland was an English actor. Principally working on the stage, his few film roles included Colonel Pickering in the 1938 film adaptation of Shaw's Pygmalion

Pygmalion (1938 film)

Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the George Bernard Shaw play of the same title, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller....

 and Sir John Colley in the 1939 film adaptation of Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...

.

Life

Educated in England and Germany, his first professional theatrical appearance was with the F.R. Benson company at Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...

 in 1909 as Douglas in Henry IV, Part 2

Henry IV, Part 2

Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V.-Sources:...

, followed later that year with his London debut. Other roles he played during his stage career included Feste in Twelfth Night, Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...

 in Abraham Lincoln, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...

 (during his late forties in the late 1920s), and several of George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

's plays (including The Apple Cart

The Apple Cart

The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza is a 1928 play by George Bernard Shaw. It is satirical comedy about several political philosophies which are expounded by the characters, often in lengthy monologue...

, Shaw's last play).

His stage experience of Shaw and his move to 'grand old man' roles by the late 1930s led to his being cast in the 1938 film of Pygmalion as Colonel Pickering and in the 1939 film of Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He appeared in Here's to Our Enterprise, a one-night show in May 1938 based on Henry Irving

Henry Irving

Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...

's life (as part of the celebrations surrounding the centenary of Irving's birth) and, though this marked his last major appearance on the London stage, also performed in revivals and new work for the Birmingham Repertory Company between 1942 and 1945 before retiring in the late 1940s.

External links

• Scott Sunderland at allmovieguide